The Surgeon General in World War II was responsible for designing, building,
equipping, and operating the Army's great system of hospitals in the United
States and for the movement to them of patients from overseas and in the
zone of interior. His department was also the matrix and forge of the hospitals
and evacuation units sent to theaters of operations throughout the world,
and it selected, trained, and equipped them. Planning and improvement of
methods to meet these complex responsibilities constitute the main theme
of the present volume.

The author's well-documented exposition of this theme focuses on large-scale
hospital administration, to include medical construction, training, procurement,
logistics, and command organization. Included are treatments of The Surgeon
General's sometime difficult relationships with the Quartermaster General,
the Chief of Engineers, the Chief of Transportation, and the Commanding
Generals of the Army Air Forces and the Army Service Forces in matters
of responsibility and jurisdiction.

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Key topics:
1. The resolution of problems of authority and responsibility with other
authorities concerned with hospitalization and evacuation (Chs. I, IV,
IX).
2. Forecasting bed requirements and planning new construction to meet them
(Chs. II, III, V, XI, XII, XVII).
3. Development of new types of hospitals and evacuation units for theaters
of operations (Chs. VI, VIII, X, XVI, XXV).
4. Simplification of administrative procedures and internal organization
of hospitals (Chs. VII, XIII, XIV, XV).
5. Redesigning of vehicles for moving patients (Chs. XXII, XXIII, XXIV).
6. Forecasting the number of patients to be evacuated from overseas (Ch.
XIX).
7. Creation of a unified system for distributing patients among hospitals
in the United States (Chs. XX, XXI).